Nicholas Lemann begins his book “Redemption: The Last Battle of the Civil War” with the 1873 Colfax, Louisiana massacre where a White League militia comprised of former Confederate soldiers killed black Republican voters. The Colfax massacre was perhaps the bloodiest event of Reconstruction. Lemann views this event as a startup of what would happen later in Mississippi if Federal troops did not defend black voters. Lemann blames Ulysses S. Grant’s Secretary of War, William W. Belknap, for not stopping the White Line activity in Louisiana and Mississippi. Grant had worked hard to stop the Ku Klux Klan in the early 1870s with Congress passing legislation and Federal troops putting down Klan activity.
The Ku Klux Klan is mentioned in the book in chapters 7 “Sam” and 11 “Boys”. The terrorist are portrayed as a merciless, traumatizing, cruel group of people. In chapter 11 of the “Color Of Water” the reader is introduced to the KKK because of Ruth’s worry for her baby father, Peter. She is anxious due to the fact she finds out she’s pregnant, and it’ll put him in danger if the truth is uncovered. Ruth’s worry in chapter 7 though mainly comes from what she’s heard about the KKK and their riding around during the night.
The C.P.Ellis by studs Terrell is an oral history of the personal growth of a former ku Klux Klan member. C.P.Ellis believe that blaming black people would ease his bitterness about his financial situations. He joined the Klan in hopes to be a part of something greater and it made him feel needed. However when he came to the realization that he was being used by wealthy people . Ellis started to re-think his personal motives.
In many books there are characters that you love, hate, and then some that you don’t have a particular opinion about. It could be because they aren’t around in the books enough, or it could be because their bad actions and their good actions cancel each other out. These characters are called ambiguous characters. In “The Autobiography of An Ex-Colored Man”, by James Weldon Johnson, the father can be seen as an ambiguous character. This is caused by the good things he does, like coming to see his son when he was young, buying his son a piano, giving his son the gift of not having to deal with racism until he is a bit older, and granting his son a way out of the African American lifestyle.
The Klan saw the immigrants as impure and they did not like
Uniquely, they ask questions, and then provide strong evidence to support their opinions on the matter or the claim. The tone of this book is mainly critical, the author introduces possible arguments to answer the questions at hand, and continues by refuting them and explaining why they are incorrect. In chapter 3, “How Is the Ku Klux Klan like a Giant Group Of Real-Estate Agents?” Levitt and Dubner mainly use the rhetorical strategy, pathos, when talking about the Ku Klux Klan because what person can disagree with someone proving how terrible a multi-state terrorist organization who’s purpose was to frighten and kill black people in the United States was? The answer is simple, no one, because most people have morals and are disgusted by what the Ku Klux Klan did.
The concept of what it means to be white and black in America is explored throughout the novel The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, by James Weldon Johnson. This novel explores these concepts through the life of a man who is both black and white and is perceived as both. His being both white and black allows him to explore and experience life as both a white man and a black man. This lens allows him to experience what it means to black and what it means to be white in America. Although race is usually defined solely on skin color, this novel suggests otherwise.
The Civil War was the most destructive battle in American history. The hurricane of a battle lasted for four years and is responsible for 785,000-1,000,000 Union, Confederate, and slave casualties. The battle was fought for the overall emancipation of slaves, and the Union succeeded in fulfilling that goal. You would think that after that war and after slavery was abolished once and for all, everyone would be happy and everyone would join together and sing Kumbaya; however, that's not exactly what happened. The Reconstruction Era was more destructive for slaves than the war itself.
The swift pace of change during the era incited a repercussion amidst those left behind by modernity like the farmers that received no economic gains from the new industry, traditional moralists angry about flappers and speakeasies, Christian fundamentalists annoyed by Darwinian objection to the literal word of the bible, nativists overrun by immigrants. All these disagreements made conflict between tradition and modernity. A failed doctor named William J. Simmons coordinated a new Klan in Atlanta, declaring it to the world by a great fiery cross up on Stone Mountain. Simmons new KKK spread around America in the era, enhancing the most critical agent for a traditional politics that was not just anti-black but also anti-Semitic, anti-Catholic, anti-Communist, anti-alcohol, anti-immigration, anti-sex, and anti-science. ”In 1921, Congress, at the urging of the resurgent Ku Klux Klan...
In the other hand, Randolph's historical arguments was totally contrast with those asserted by Evans in support of the Klan's conception of Americanism. Evans was more support of keeping the national pride as whites and wanted to enforce the common culture. In his idea, there was a strong pride or “supremacy” for whites and a denial or “lookdown” for the cultures that were different.
He was a member of the powerful Dallas chapter and subsequently was elected as the Klan’s Imperial Wizard in late 1922. He transformed the Klan into a massive business organization with a largely secret membership of over 5 million people and enormous political influence. He was a pivotal leader of one of the country’s most widely known hate groups at a vulnerable time in our history. Many men feared the multiple consequences of immigration throughout the country and how it would affect their economic, political and cultural standing. Evans was a master at interpreting this current of fear at loss of control and channeling it to increase his organization’s size and therefore, power.
Congress fought hard to limit the amount of non-Anglo-Saxons entering the country during this time, and racism, particularly that that was anti-black, was a prominent problem during the twenties. All these factors lead back to Zinn’s underlying point being that, during this time leading into the Great Depression, true unity was greatly difficult to attain and white supremacy was a violent force that was quickly spreading across the
This action consisted of whites promoting nativist ideas towards those of other ethnicities and trying to prove their inferiority. Some white Americans even tried to organize political parties such as the Know Nothing Party to staunchly resist certain immigrants being admitted into the U.S. Not only was it individuals promoting such ideas, but the Federal government helped ban immigration from certain countries and or limit it. This in contrast with what immigrants experienced in the 1920s was almost nothing as in the 1920s the KKK is reborn and the number of lynching’s increases. However, the violence expressed toward immigrants in America was not even considered wrong at either point in
During this time, Klansmen were holding public parades and initiations throughout the nation while projecting their racist beliefs of purifying American society with native-born White Protestant males along with their White supremacy. With their massive growth, their
The Ku Klux Klan or KKK has created centuries of fear. They originated in Pulaski, Tennessee. The famous hate group was out to re establish white supremacy. The KKK has influenced local governments and people in power. It has also had an impact on American people and specifically black minorities.
